2 COMEDY PROGRAMS, ON HBO AND SHOWTIME

By JOHN J. O'CONNOR

Published: October 7, 1986

PAY cable has had some of its more notable programming successes with comedy and comics, establishing a kind of ''borscht belt'' of its own. The rush to humor continues with two new shows: Elayne Boosler in ''Party of One,'' on Showtime tonight at 10, and ''Really Weird Tales,'' a Home Box Office spoof of television anthologies not unlike ''The Twilight Zone'' and ''Amazing Stories.'' The first half-hour episode can be seen this evening at 10:30.

Ms. Boosler began in show business as a singer but was steered into comedy by Andy Kaufman. ''Party of One,'' written and co-produced by Ms. Boosler, is dedicated to the late comedian. According to her official biography, Ms. Boosler was born and raised in Brooklyn, the youngest child and only daughter of a Russian-acrobat father and a Rumanian-ballerina mother. Over the years, she has paid her performing dues in club dates and on the Johnny Carson-David Letterman-Merv Griffin circuit. Her cable special includes what she calls ''fleeting glimpses'' of Mr. Letterman, Bill Cosby and even the strange Brother Theodore who, in his best leering manner, explains that ''I get up with the birds and lie down with the pigs.''

The Boosler act focuses on the potential pitfalls and occasional triumphs of being a woman in urban America, specifically New York City. If the Boosler character is sharp, independent and occasionally scathing, she is not abrasive. The comedian has explained: ''I don't do a feminist act. I'm a human being trapped in a woman's body.'' More to the point, perhaps, she has entered the male-dominated preserve of straightforward, stand-up comedy without having to make funny faces or behave outlandishly. Too often - think of Phyllis Diller or Totie Fields or Joan Rivers - female comics have felt obliged to become almost grotesque. Ms. Boosler, a handsome, confident woman, simply picks up a microphone and tells funny stories. There are no unnecessary frills.

Filmed before an audience at New York's Bottom Line, most of ''Party of One,'' directed by Steve Gerbson, focuses on life as a single woman. She has to cope with, among other things, dates who, the morning after, expect breakfast. ''They want things like toast,'' says Ms. Boosler. ''I don't have these recipes.'' She keeps food out of the house in the continuing battle to stay thin. ''Groceries!'' she marvels. ''What a concept! I thought the kitchen shelves were beam supports to hold the house up.'' And so on, through macho construction workers, nagging parents and the latest odd products dedicated to feminine hygiene. The territory is fairly traditional, but Ms. Boosler's angle of vision is sharp and fresh.

HBO's ''Really Weird Tales'' has been created, co-produced (with Michael MacMillan) and co-written (with David Flaherty and Catherine O'Hara) by Joe Flaherty, whose past credits include television's ''SCTV'' comedy series and such films as ''Stripes'' and ''Used Cars.'' He appears in each of the three episodes as host in the manner of Rod Serling, Vincent Price or HBO's ''Hitchhiker.'' He has also recruited, quite shrewdly, the acting services of other ''SCTV'' graduates: Miss O'Hara, John Candy and Martin Short.

Tonight's episode, ''All's Well That Ends Strange,'' features a terrifc turn by Mr. Short, perhaps best known for his super-nerd Ed Grimley. Here Mr. Short plays Shucky Forme (pronounced For-may), a no-talent lounge singer hired to provide the entertainment at a swank party being thrown by the smooth, pipe-smoking publisher of ''girlie'' magazines. Shucky's dream is to be part of the publisher's inner circle. ''I think that this whole sex-shmear thing you're doing is great,'' he fawns. After belting out an off-key version of ''Mack the Knife,'' Shucky is taken to a pool grotto by one of the publisher's curvaceous employees, named Tippi (Olivia d'Abo), and promptly falls in love. They both expose their serious sides. As an actor, he wants to do roles like ''Elephant Man.'' She sees herself as a kind of Meryl Streep.

And so innocent Shucky enters a world that will leave him experiencing the heebie-jeebies, the willies and the jitters all at the same time. Directed by Paul Lynch, ''All's Well That Ends Strange'' gets this new series off to a properly goofy start. But it is Mr. Short who makes the project sizzle. His lunacy gives ''Really Weird Tales'' a positively inspired debut.